Russia claims Alexei Navalny ‘died of sudden death syndrome’ after Putin critic’s body ‘goes missing’
Navalny's team accused the Russian authorities of 'lying to cover their tracks'
RUSSIA has claimed Alexei Navalny died of “sudden death syndrome” after his body went missing earlier today.
The mother and lawyer of Putin’s biggest critic were told that he had died of the condition as they waited to say goodbye to his body at the morgue.
His death was confirmed at 14.17 local time on February 16, according to a document given to Navalny’s mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya.
Navalny’s corpse wasn’t in the morgue in Salekhard – in the Arctic Circle – where his family were told by officials it had been taken to.
Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh demanded his body was immediately handed over to his family before it somehow went missing.
They literally lie every time, drive in circles and cover their tracks
Kira Yarmysh
Russian authorities later said they delayed the release of the body because they hadn’t found the cause of death yet, before revealing it was “sudden death syndrome”, prominent Navalny ally Ivan Zhdanov said.
Yarmysh said: “It is obvious that they are lying and doing everything not to give up the body.
“Now the Investigative Committee directly says that until the check is completed, Alexei’s body will not be given to relatives.”
Yarmysh said that they were told to go to the Salekhard morgue so they could say their goodbyes to Navalny but when they arrived it was closed and there was no sign of the Kremlin critic’s body.
But then after a few phone calls Yarmysh was told: “They don’t have Alexei’s body in the morgue.
“Just an hour ago, the lawyers were told that the check was completed and no crime had been established.
“They literally lie every time, drive in circles and cover their tracks.”
Prison authorities in Russia said Navalny fell unconscious and died after a walk at the feared “Polar Wolf” jail, where he was serving a three-decade sentence.
Navalny, Putin’s leading domestic critic in Russia, had bravely challenged the tyrant’s rule and his horrific war in Ukraine.
His supporters feared that he would be assassinated while behind bars.
Pictures show a woman believed to be Lyudmila at the brutal IK-3 Polar Wolf penal colony in northern Russia after the news of her son’s death was announced.
She was seen travelling in a black car wearing a face mask and sunglasses to cover her identity.
We don’t have too many reasons to suspect a natural death. We see an intentional murder in front of our eyes, not something else
Ekaterina Shulman
Many are suspicious of the circumstances surrounding his death after he was seen laughing and joking with a judge on a video call on Thursday.
His family also said he was in good health when they visited him in jail just three days before his death.
He had been “cheerful and healthy” in the days before his death.
“We knew that there was a risk, Alexei knew it as well. And yesterday they murdered him as they planned to do it three years ago”, said Yarmysh.
Respected Russian political analyst Ekaterina Shulman told Bild in Russian: “We don’t have too many reasons to suspect a natural death.”
“We see an intentional murder in front of our eyes, not something else,” she said.
“Not even death from hard conditions (in the Arctic jail).”
People in Russia have said he could have potentially been drugged or poisoned inside the colony run by Colonel Vadim Kalinin, 51.
Former FSB colonel Gennady Gudkov, 67, an opposition politician like Navalny, backed these theories.
He said: “He was kept… in torture conditions.
“Either his body did not overcome such torture (or) they might have given some medication that causes heart failure, they could have given a poison.
“We will only learn the truth when Putin is gone. The fact that they killed him is beyond any doubt.”
A total of 231 people have been arrested in Russia for trying to place flowers to honour Navalny or protesting over his death.
What is sudden death syndrome?
SUDDEN death syndrome is a common killer across the world.
Also known as sudden arrhythmic death syndrome, it occurs when someone has a ‘ventricular arrhythmia’ – also known as a disturbance in the heart’s rhythm.
The rhythm of our heartbeat is controlled by natural electrical activity in our heart cells and if this electrical current is disturbed it can result in a cardiac arrest.
There are a group of fairly rare diseases called ion channelopathies which can cause these potentially fatal disturbances.
They can only be detected when a person is alive and not during a post-mortem, studies show.
that around 500 deaths a year in the UK are because of sudden death syndrome.
COMMON SYMPTONS
- Chest pain
- Severe Breathlessness
- Heart palpitations
- Prolonged Dizziness
- Fainting
- Blackouts
Although sometimes there can be no symptoms whatsoever hence the chilling name.
WORLDWIDE REACTIONS
David Cameron scolded Vladimir Putin for his role in Navalny’s death saying “we should hold Putin accountable” as he blasted Russia’s “dreadful” regime.
He said: “There should be consequences… look what Putin’s Russia did to him.
“He’s died and that is because of the action that Putin’s Russia took.
“No one can look at this regime now and not recognise it for the truly dreadful nature that it has.”
Make no mistake, Putin is responsible for Navalny’s death
Joe Biden
Protesters gathered outside the London embassy chanting critical slogans against Putin.
One sign read: “Putin in is a murderer.”
And two others said “the war must stop” and “love is stronger than the war”.
US President Joe Biden blasted: “Make no mistake, Putin is responsible for Navalny’s death.”
He added: “Even in prison he was a powerful voice for the truth.”
Latvian president Edgars Rinkevics raged on X that Navalny was “brutally murdered by the Kremlin“.
And Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said: “Obviously, Putin killed him”.
In Berlin, a crowd of around 500 to 600 people gathered on the city’s Unter den Linden boulevard chanting in a mixture of Russian, German and English.
Some shouted “Putin to the Hague”, referring to the international criminal court investigating possible war crimes committed in Ukraine.
Police used barriers to close off the road between the Russian embassy and the crowd.
“Alexei Navalny is the leader of the Russian opposition and we always kept hope in his name,” said a Russian man draped in a blue-and-white anti-war flag, giving his name only as Ilia.
In Lithuania, formerly run from Moscow but now a member of NATO and the European Union, protesters placed flowers and candles by a portrait of Navalny.
“He was always with us, so it is all surreal,” said Lyusya Shtein, 26, a Pussy Riot activist who has lived in Vilnius since leaving Russia in 2022.
“None of us yet understand what happened,” she added.
In Russia itself, prosecutors warned Russians against participating in any mass protest in Moscow.
Police watched as some Russians came to lay roses and carnations at a monument to victims of Soviet repression in the shadow of the former KGB headquarters.
Groups also gathered in Rome, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Sofia, Geneva, Lisbon and The Hague.
Pavel Elizarov, a 28-year-old Russian living in Portugal, said Navalny had been “a symbol of freedom and hope.”
Near the Russian embassy in Paris, where around 100 protesters gathered, Natalia Morozov said Navalny had also been a symbol of hope for her.
Navalny’s wife, Yulia, was in Munich on Friday, where a vigil also took place.
She told the Munich Security Conference she could not be sure her husband was dead because “Putin and his government… lie incessantly”.
Yulia said that if confirmed she wanted them to know “they will bear responsibility”.
On the other side of the Atlantic, at a vigil outside the Russian consulate in New York City, Violetta Soboleva said she had volunteered for Navalny’s presidential campaign in 2017.
“I really believed that he’s the one and he can lead Russia to a better future,” said Soboleva, a Russian studying for her doctorate in New York.
She continued: “And now we’ve lost this future forever.”
